Posted by Watson
a resident of Another Pleasanton neighborhood
on Apr 21, 2012 at 11:19 am

The real shame in this sad saga is that the leaders of the Democratic Party in Alameda County have been all too willing to let this drag out without anyone daring to demand her resignation.

All too similar to the ugly Mary Hayashi felony arrest and subsequent plea bargain. Nadia Lockyer finally pushed her case so far even she couldn't stand it. Were it left up to other Democratic leaders, she'd still be sticking it out and not one of them would have been willing to speak up.

Hayashi, essentially a admitted felon, reduced to a misdemeanor, is now serving 3 years probation while at the same time sitting as the "Honorable" Chair of the Business and Professions Committee.
Have you heard one Alameda County Democratic leader suggest she resign?

I'm a registered Democrat for 40 years and it is obvious that the leaders of our area are so entrenched in their own little club that no one dares speak out to say the Emperor has no clothes.
Apparently it goes against the rules to say anything about behavior, not even when it is splashed all over the headlines and ends up in court.

So we are left with the antics and shame of Nadia Lockyer and Mary Hayashi, while the local party leaders act like there isn't rotting fish in the kitchen.
If local Eastbay politics were a restaurant, the health department would have closed it down.
Instead here we hear nothing as the insiders keep pushing their favorites until they reach 80 and beyond, regardless of how incapable they become. Think Pete Stark's recent embarassing statements.

No, by all means, never say anything bad. Instead bow down and keep voting them back in. The message you send them is that you, the voter, don't matter. You are just stage props, they are the lead actors.

By the way, its been over 4 months since Mary Hayashi took the plea deal. Has there been one public event she has attended where anyone could ask her even one question?
The answer is NO. Not one open public event where she answered any questions. Not one newpaper article where a reporter was allowed to ask a question. Yet she is supposed to be our "representative".
Again, no local Democratic party leader has questioned this behavior.

So in conclusion, the resignation of Nadia Lockyer was just a sympton of brain dead local party leadship. Finally we got a peek inside of that kitchen and saw the rotting fish we'd been smelliPng.

Posted by Holmes
a resident of another community
on Apr 21, 2012 at 11:25 am

I detect by your disproportionate outrage that you have been spurned by someone Nadia reminds you of. In addition, I perceive by your party-line Democrat bashing that your claim to be a 40-year member is spurious.

Posted by Dr. Moriarty
a resident of another community
on Apr 21, 2012 at 11:48 am

The frequent references to the dead fish and its assault on olfactory senses suggests to me that Watson is in a rotten marriage that dried up long ago. The continued odor of the dead fish is Watson's superego wracking him with guilt on account of his past extramarital affairs with an active Democratic Party operative. His missive is a plea for those around him to intercede in order to confirm that which he has 'known' unconsciously for many years: his wife no longer loves him but indeed has spurned his love on account of her rapturously ecstatic affection for Barack Hussien Obama.

Posted by Watson
a resident of Another Pleasanton neighborhood
on Apr 21, 2012 at 12:05 pm

Sorry Holmes, I registered as a Democrat in 1971, worked for the election of Pete Stark in 1972. At the then campaign headquarters at 73rd and MacArthur, in Oakland, just north of the firehouse.
Walked house to house for 4 weekends preceeding the June 1972 primary. Have followed the careers of Klehs, Lockyer, Perata since they first entered politics in Oakland and San Leandro. But hey, even before I came of voting age I was around Democratic party doings. When March Fong won her firt primary, I think it was in 1966, I was at her headquarters on Foothill Blvd in Oakland's Fairfax district for the election night victory party.
The Democratic party of the 60's and early 70's was full of life and respectable leadship. However like any entrenched group, who lack serious opposition, they become inbred, fat, and unwilling to have any self policing.
Everyone is afraid of upsetting the good old boys/girls club.

I'm still a registered Democrat. Your reply is exactly the mindset of our current local party. If anyone expresses disgust you immediately lable then as a probable Republican.

Keep thinking everyone expressing something other than the party line is bad. That is exactly how we end up with the likes of Mary Hayashi and Nadia Lockyer.
I suppose you support Hayashi? Tell us, when will she attend a open public meeting where anyone in her district is allowed to ask a question?
Tell me you still think her feloy arrest was all just a mistaked.

Posted by Dr. Moriarty
a resident of another community
on Apr 21, 2012 at 12:13 pm

Notice all the deflection away from the deep-seated issue of marital unhappiness and guilt. Reference again, like the dead fish, to "disgust," but not a single mention of the failed marriage and his own contributions to it. Only the quasi-hysterical misspelling of "mistaked" which once again brings earlier life choices to the fore but which until now had long receded from the consciousness.

Posted by hmm
a resident of Another Pleasanton neighborhood
on Apr 21, 2012 at 1:48 pm

Just because you haven't heard people call for a resignation doesn't mean it didn't occur. We all should be concerned when any public official violates the public trust. Certainly neither party has a corner on this type of behavior.

Others are not responsible for the bad choices. Blame the individual not the party.

Posted by Watson
a resident of Another Pleasanton neighborhood
on Apr 21, 2012 at 2:14 pm

hmmm, I'm not blaming the "Democratic" party as in Democrats versus Republicans. Here in Alameda County there is only one party that has any real chance of electing a official.
Rather I am blaming the local Democratic party leaders as failing to speak out when their fellow Democratic \party office holders behave in shameful behavior.

This tired old "blame the individual not the party" is essentially saying everyone can just stand by and observe their behavior, saying nothing.
Again, show me one quote from a local legislator, city council person, or supervior, saying what Mary Hayashi did was bad and that she should resign. Or even that she should be reprimanded.

They all ran and hid during the entire Hayashi debacle.
If she wasn't being termed out, I doubt any of them would have endorsed a challenger.
They act like Mary Hayashi has never been arrested for a felony.
Or that she is on 3 years probation for shoplifting. Imagine having a state legislator who can't even be invited to speak at a local high school graduation ceremony.

Its the Democrats. Always the Democrats. None of them take responsibility for taking my tax money and giving it to lazy people who won't work for it, and that includes there lazy children as well. We need more jobs, because people are unemployed and the Democrats won't let people work for a living. Perhaps our great fearless leader, the half-black half-white B Hussien Obama, can cut a deal with muslim Kenyan dog eaters to bring employment back to this country. Democrats make me want to puke.

Watson, please ignore the mindless trolls occupying the PW. Their inability or unwillingness to directly answer you queries only verifies your point about the party not only shying away from addressing illegal behavior, but by their silence condoning this behavior. It's a symptom of the arrogance that develops when they feel they can't lose an election in this area, since they can count on their mind numbed minions following their 'leadership'.

Posted by Holmes
a resident of another community
on Apr 22, 2012 at 8:23 am

Watson, you asked why high-ranking Democrats haven't held press conferences over shoplifting. Shoplifting? My good man, how many times have you yourself handed me the seven percent solution with your own hands? And of those times, how often have you informed the constabulary?

Posted by It's politics
a resident of Country Fair
on Apr 22, 2012 at 9:42 am

If every Assembly member in Sacramento who has been accused or convicted of a misdemeanor/felony resigned, it would be equal opportunity between both parties. That's why no party brings it up at this time.

Posted by Holmes
a resident of another community
on Apr 22, 2012 at 12:40 pm

From "A Scandal in Suburbia," circa 1887:

"To Watson, she is always THE woman. I have seldom heard him mention her under any other name. In his eyes she eclipses and predominates the whole of the Democratic Party. It was not that he felt any emotion akin to hate for female Democrats. All emotions, and that one particularly, were abhorrent to his cold, precise but admirably balanced mind. He was, I take it, the most perfect reasoning and politically observant machine that the world has seen, but as a Democrat he would have placed himself in a false position. He never spoke of the left, save with a gibe and a sneer. They were admirable things for the observer  excellent for drawing the veil from men's motives and actions. But for the trained reasoner to admit such intrusions into his own delicate and finely adjusted temperament was to introduce a distracting factor which might throw a doubt upon all his mental results. Grit in a sensitive instrument, or a crack in one of his own high-power lenses, would not be more disturbing than a strong emotion in a nature such as his. And yet there was but one woman to him, and that woman was Nadia Lockyer, of dubious and questionable criminal record. Oh, and Mary Hayashi. Hell, probably all women, really."

Another sad, sorry democrat. And to think, she called herself a victim......
Victimized her husband, her staff and her constituents. Oh, woe is me, but please give your sympathy to this skanky, druggie. Congrats, dems, you get the representation you deserve.

Posted by Drainda Swamp
a resident of Another Pleasanton neighborhood
on Apr 24, 2012 at 10:13 am

Why are so many Democrat politicians in the Bay Area crooks? Let's see, we have:
- A county Supervisor that was put in office because her husband bought her the office, is a drug addict, is an alcoholic, had an affair with a drug addict, has been in rehab at least twice and now says her husband, the California Treasurer, supplied her with the drugs.
- A state Assemblywoman that was observed shoplifting multiple times making off with thousands of dollars of merchandise each time. She say she had a mental illness, but is now meraculously cured.
- A county Sheriff they are trying to remove from office for beating his wife, allegedly on multiple occaisions.
- A state Treasurer who has been accused by his wife of getting her hooked on drugs, and bought that wife political office with campaign funds that were given to him.
- A Congresswoman, and former Speaker of the House, who gets all sorts of legislation passed that specifically aids her billionaire husband.
- A U. S. Senator that gets all sors of legislation passed that specifically aids her billionaire husband.
- A former head of the State Senate that was intensively investigated by the FBI for alleged criminal activity.

Posted by Dr. M
a resident of another community
on Apr 24, 2012 at 10:44 am

What should not get lost in this conversation is the importance of having women in the working world. As Mrs. Mittens put it:

"I love the fact that there are women out there who don't have a choice and they must go to work and they still have to raise the kids. Thank goodness that we value those people too. And sometimes life isn't easy for any of us."

Posted by Mittens
a resident of Another Pleasanton neighborhood
on Apr 24, 2012 at 8:02 pm

What should not get lost in this conversation is women like Nadia who takes her kid to meet with her abusive, druggie boyfriend in a hotel room. it may be ok for elected democrat women, but mothers who are pro life would not endanger their offspring like that.

Posted by Dr. M
a resident of another community
on Apr 24, 2012 at 8:59 pm

I've been practicing medicine for over a century and I have never seen an anti-choice woman ever endanger their own. I wish they'd care as much about other women's kids, but what's done is done. The important thing is to get rid of Democrats, and especially Democrat women, because their Democrats, and because their women. As for the children of single working mothers who are working for minimum wage, screw 'em.

Posted by Watson
a resident of Another Pleasanton neighborhood
on Apr 25, 2012 at 2:05 am

Its rather amazing where people take these discussions.

To be against the actions of Hayashi and Nadia Lockyer seems only reasonable.
Then you have the responses that all Democrats or women are bad.
Only to have others respond that anyone who thinks Hayashi and Lockyer are awful are Right-Wing Tea Party nuts.

I'm telling you, lots of long time East Bay Democrats are disgusted with both Hayashi and Lockyer, and like me, tired of East Bay Democratic party leaders who just sit back and refuse to even suggest those two office holders have done something really bad.

A drug addict and a shoplifter...Our representatives.
Yet not a word from others in leadership positions in the local Democratic part.

Thank God for the new "top two" system we have in place now.
Perhaps some Democrats who don't cater to the extreme elements in the party will now be in the November general election, willing to express some views of the middle without fear of being labeled as reactionary.
I won't hold my breath, but we might get some better choices.
Perhaps some of the dead wood can be removed, prior to them actually needing to die in office, getting arrested, or being termed out.

Posted by Dr. Moriarty
a resident of another community
on Apr 25, 2012 at 2:31 am

It seems to me, my dear Watson, that you have tended to meander somewhat yourself. In your above missive, for example, you start by suggesting there is a problem with Dem party leadership not being honest or forthright enough about a couple of straying calves out on the prairie (as you Americans term it, I believe). But you then give very strong indication that that isn't your REAL concern at all. Your REAL concern is that you think the Dems in office are too extreme. Now, how you get from straying calves who shoplift or fall to bouts of alcoholism to extremist Dems is really beyond me. I suspect it is beyond you as well. Why the disconnect?

I return to the twin theses raised by your trusted colleague, mentor, and (often condescending -- how DO you tolerate the way he paternalizes you?) friend, Mr. Holmes. That is, that you have a problem with women in power (indicated by your rather conspicuously inordinate disapprobation of Hayashi and Lockyer); and that you have a problem with the Democratic Party in its current form, both ideologically and organizationally. Perhaps it is time for you to admit to yourself, if not to us, that as the inestimable Mr. Holmes suggested early on, that you are in fact a closet Republican who (not surprisingly, as a Republican) has a difficult time dealing with the reality of women in the public sphere.

BTW, old chap, you haven't stumbled upon a stray speckled band perchance now, have you?

Posted by mittens
a resident of Another Pleasanton neighborhood
on Apr 25, 2012 at 8:46 am

Dr. m, if you don't have a problem with women in power (especially after the glowing examples of Lockyer and Hayashi), I'm sure you have nothing bad to say about Sarah Palin. After all, she is a woman in power and you'd never be against any of them, lest you be labeled a supporter of the war on women. Isn't it fun when you generalize and project.....it always comes back at ya......

Posted by Watson
a resident of Another Pleasanton neighborhood
on Apr 25, 2012 at 12:10 pm

Doctor, Not just women. I'll vote to send Pete and Bill packing.

Pete (Stark) because he has ceased being effective and carries no respect even among his own party. Unless you overlooked it, he has no seniority status. The unthinkable happened when his fellow Democrats passed him over for the chairmanship of the Ways and Means committee. Perhaps the most powerful post in congress after the Speaker.
He has become a joke. Time to send him a message. Time to let everyone know that this term, even if he wins, will be his last.
By the way, he won't be returning to the district. He will live, as he has for the past decades, as a true resident of the DC area.

And Bill (Lockyer) should not be supported when he runs for Controller in 2014 for one very good reason. When he foisted his wife onto unsuspecting voters using his $1,500,000, he knew full well that she was already undergoing rehab, but he kept this secret from the people in Alameda County.
For God sakes, his wife went away for rehab, and now he says he didn't know it. So she goes away for days and days, perhaps weeks and he claims he didn't know where she was, or why she was gone.

For that lie, and for keeping that secret from the voters, he shouldn't be elected to any future office. Forgetting the allegation by his wife that Bill supplied her with drugs.

So, as you can see, I won't limit my opinion to only women office holders.
As to being a closet Republican, it would seem you feel that a true Democrat would never stray from the part line on each and every issue. Getting a 100% rating from the pressure groups.
CTA, CNA, public employee unions.
I beg to differ.
Take the pension issue. Call me crazy, but back 10 years ago I was against the giant 35% boost in pensions rates. Not only the 35% boost, but especially making that giant boost retroactive for all prior years of service.

I suppose you'd have gone along with the "party" line and voted to make that possible. Look what it has done.
In cities like Oakland, Berkeley, Pleasanton, employees who had worked for 29.9 years, expecting a excellent pension, suddenly were given a boost of 35% for life, even if they just remained on the job for a couple more months.
A $60,000 pension, overnight, became a $81,000 pension for the next 25 years. You do the math. Over half a million extra for just remaining on the job past a certain date.
A Golden Parachute which future generations will end up paying.
All thanks to people who followed the party line.
So yes, on many issues, I like to see some more sensible Democratic candidates.

Sorry I can't be as pure as so many demand from the current crop of Democratic leaders in the East Bay.